Apparently a consensus exists that publishing many short and frequent items is a better way to run a blog than is publishing fewer and longer items. I’m certain that’s so. I’m not very good at it. Nevertheless, this space’s previous conversations about journalism and digital survival, leavened with the occasional bit of good news, shall resume shortly. Thank you to the surprising number of people who have written recently to encourage this.

A team of three reporters, of which I’m lucky to be one, has launched a new documentary project about Spain’s unemployment crisis.

An exciting, new magazine led by an editor so clever, she really ought to have been obligated to go to medical school instead of into publishing, will be both a bi-monthly and a daily, via a re-launched website.

In the three months since self-publishing a piece of long form reporting, I have become more aware of the niche businesses evolving around ebooks. Graphic designers appear to be finding sustaining work. Freelance editors have less traction, but some are doing well providing notes to authors. What I have yet to understand, and would like to explore, is why the marketing business hasn’t gotten very involved in the ebook business. We do not yet see many boutique marketing shops cropping up for hire by authors to sell books. Or, not nearly to the degree graphic designers, ebook packagers, and distributors have. « Read the rest of this entry »

The above was among several responses over the holidays to a spate of articles on journalists and self-publishing. The stories I saw were by Ewan Spence at Forbes, Jenn Webb at O’Reilly Radar, and Matthew Ingram at GigaOm. Each talked about my own Kindle Single, which is why I saw them. From the many, many tweets and such that resulted, I suspect there are more stories out there, and a larger discussion.

I’ll try to answer the question. My guess is the self-publishing model could support a lot of the reporters who were previously working as freelancers, stringers and — most notably — fixers. But it would have to be done internationally, and probably in groups. « Read the rest of this entry »

This week, publisher Hachette circulated a memo articulating the services it offers to authors. According to a copy reprinted on a website called Digital Book World, the memo said Hachette, and publishers in general, do four main things:

Reading the memo caused me to think back to the spring, when I had lunch with a friend who works as an senior editor with a large New York publishing house. I’d asked him to make a similar case – to convince me why authors should market their work to traditional publishers – and he had offered a similar list. In addition to finding and nurturing talent, he provides his authors money (what he called “a banking function”) plus marketing, distribution, and legal muscle. It was a slightly uncomfortable conversation because I wasn’t convinced. « Read the rest of this entry »